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Farming carps in leased ponds, Bangladesh
Seed production of mud crab in IndiaMesocosm technology for grouper aquaculture
Now available on CD-ROM
ISSN 0859-600X Volume XI No. 1 January-March 2006
Nursery rearing of silver barbs
Utilisation of fish wastes
Lymphocystis disease
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1
Aquaculture Asia
is an autonomous publication
that gives people in developing
countries a voice. The views and
opinions expressed herein are
those of the contributors and
do not represent the policies or
position of NACA.
Editor
Simon Wilkinson
Editorial Consultant
Pedro Bueno
NACA
An intergovernmental
organization that promotes
rural development throughsustainable aquaculture. NACA
seeks to improve rural income,
increase food production and
foreign exchange earnings and
to diversify farm production. The
ultimate beneficiaries of NACA
activities are farmers and rural
communities.
Contact
The Editor, Aquaculture AsiaPO Box 1040
Kasetsart Post Office
Bangkok 10903, Thailand
Tel +66-2 561 1728
Fax +66-2 561 1727
Website http://www.enaca.org
Printed by
Scand-Media Co., Ltd.
Volume XI No. 1
January-March 2006
ISSN 0859-600X
Lessons learned the hard way
After a recent meeting of CONSRN a number of the participants gathered for an
informal discussion of lessons learned in recovery from the tsunami disaster.
Many issues were discussed, but there was one in particular that stood out: The
need for better coordination in the delivery of assistance to tsunami-affected
communities. Despite the enormous resources that donors have put into providing
emergency assistance and now longer-term rehabilitation support, it is very clear
that most donors do not want to fund coordination activities. They want to fund
provision of material aid.
I think I understand the psychology of this: There is a natural tendency for
donors to want to make sure that every last dollar is spent on the needy rather than
administration or red tape. However, it is entirely obvious to everyone involved in
the recovery that this isnt happening: Duplication of effort among donors is rife.
Misallocation of assistance is rampant. Needy people are being given things that
they dont need at all. Worst of all, some people have received no assistance to this
day.
The overwhelming consensus was that coordination of donor assistance should
not be regarded as some sort of administrative overhead. Coordination is essential
to ensure the efficient use of resources, or if you want to look at it in a differentlight, to prevent wastage of resources still desperately needed by many people.
I will leave you with a few other thoughts from the discussions that caught my
attention:
Organizations (and individuals) that arent equipped to engage in disaster
recovery should seriously consider their own capacities before deciding to get
involved. A lot of resources have been spent in managing people that wanted to
help, but couldnt.
Streamlined rules and procedures are needed for organizations to be able to
react quickly to emergencies (see the point above!). There have been many ex-
amples where an organizations internal bureaucracy prevented it from deliver-
ing assistance in a timely way, or where donors demanded excessive reporting
on the expenditure of small grants. Offers of cash or entitlement systems are often more useful than offers of
expertise or goods, which frequently do not match actual needs. It is better to
empower people to buy/select their own assistance than to procure it for them.
Work towards helping people to help themselves. It is better to strengthen exist-
ing local organizations than to try and set up new ones, and to employ local or
national staff where possible.
Working through community groups can help avoid many of the problems
encountered when working with individuals.
Probably the greatest lesson is that these lessons are nothing new. They are re-
curring themes in natural disasters around the world that should have been learned
by now, at least by international donors. Unfortunately it seems that human nature
is that we always have to learn things for ourselves. The hard way.
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2 Aquaculture Asia Magazine
In this issue
Research & farming techniques
Nursery rearing ofPuntius goniotus: A preliminary trial 7
K.N. Mohnta, J.K. Jena & S.N. Mohanty
Artemia enrichment and biomass production for larval finfish
and shellfish culture 11
A.S. Ninawe
Vembanad Lake: A potential spawner bank of the giant freshwater prawn
Macrobrachium rosenbergiion the southwest coast of India 15
Paramaraj Balamurugan, Pitchaimuthu Mariappan & Chellam Balasundaram
Seed production of mud crab Scylla serrata at the Rajiv Gandhi Center
for Aquaculture, Tamil Nadu, India 17
Mohamed Shaji, Emilia T. Quinitio, Thampi Samraj, S. Kandan, K. Ganesh,
Dinesh Kumar, S. Arulraj, S. Pandiarajan, Shajina Ismail and K. Dhandapan.
Sustainable aquaculture
Fish wastes in urban and suburban markets of Kolkata: Problems and potentials 22
Kausik Mondal, Anilava Kaviraj & P.K. Mukhopadhyay
People in aquaculture
Peter Edwards writes on rural aquaculture: Farming carps in leased ponds
by groups of poor women in Chandpur, Bangladesh 26
Aquatic animal health
Lymphocystis disease and diagnostic methods in China 30Jing Xing, Xiuzhen Sheng & Wenbin Zhan
Asia-Pacific Marine Finfish Aquaculture Network
Mesocosm technology advances grouper culture in northern Australia 34
Elizabeth Cox, Peter Fry & Anjanette Johnston
Page 7
Page 11
Page 15
Page 17
Page 22
Page 26
Page 36
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3January-March 2006
Notes from the Publisher
Pedro Bueno
is the Director-
General of
NACA. He is the
former Editor of
Aquaculture Asia
Magazine.
The investment that is NACA
NACA did not go the way many projects
had gone; itflourished after project
funding ended. This largely reflects
the correctness of the strategy of FAO
and UNDP in establishing a network
organization based on Technical Coop-
eration among Developing Countries,
and the wisdom of the NACA Govern-
ments decision to continue to invest in
NACA. This is the third of a series on
The Lessons from NACA. The earlier
ones are in the previous issues of Aqua-
culture Asia. It casts NACA as a public
investment and, with somefigures, tries
to answer the question as to whether it
is paying off.
The annual percent rate of growth or
APR of the value of aquaculture pro-
duction in Asia between 1988 and 1997
(in the wake of the operation of the
UNDP/FAO Regional Project to estab-
lish NACA) was 11 percent by volumefrom 13.4 to 34 million metric tonnes
and 9 percent by value from US$ 19.3
billion to US$ 42 billion. In perspec-
tive, the total cash input over 11 years
between 1981 and 1991, from donor
and government funds to the NACA
Project and the UNDP/FAO Seafarm-
ing Development Project (this 4-year
project was also managed by NACA),
was US$ 9 million.
Carrying on the investment
The NACA Project evolved into an
autonomous organization and ex-
panded its scope and operations after
project funding ceased. For example,
the Regional Seafarming Project was
absorbed into the NACA program and
the seafarming centres became part of
the regional network. As an independ-
ent body owned and operated by its
member-governments, NACA adopted
a change in operational strategy. It had
to (i) become self-sustaining in order to
finance core activities such as technical
advice, information exchange, and net-
work coordination and administration,
(ii) generate revenues by provision of
services against payments, (iii) develop
programs and projects for collaborative
assistance, and (iv) forge partnerships
with other institutions. These measures
made it possible for NACA to continue
as a focal point for the implementation
of multilaterally and bilaterally funded
regional and national projects.
NACA also operates, on request,
government-funded or bilaterally-
funded national projects. Two cases
can provide an example of this aspect
of its program, in India (government-
funded) and Vietnam (donor-funded).
An important point to be made of
these two cases is that the results of
national projects are shared among
countries through NACAs networking
and TCDC activities. The experiences
Start up funding
UNDP/FAO project funding to the NACA Project totaled US$ 7.2 million,
with an additional US$ 800,000 for the Seafarming Development and Dem-
onstration Project that NACA also managed from 1987 to 1991. Participat-
ing governments contributed to the NACA Project US$ 804,500 from 1985
to 1989 including US$ US 400,000 by China PR (TCDC/IPF) and the Thai
Aid Programme in support of special activities, and voluntary contributions
from Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, DPR Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philip-
pines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam, which were then participants of
the Project. In-kind contributions could not be estimated but the Chinese,
Indian and Thai governments upgraded from their own national funds, withassistance from UNDP, the Regional Lead Centres (in Wuxi, Bhubaneshwar
and Bangkok) to very high standards in line with their participation in
the network as lead centres. The Philippines Aquaculture Department of
SEAFDEC hosted the Regional Lead Centre in the Philippines as well as the
Senior Aquaculturist Training Programme, which ran for 9 years and gradu-
ated 137 senior personnel from eight classes (the degree was awarded by the
University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV), which collaborated in
teaching the program). Investments to the 10-year project and an additional
year for the Seafarming Project (1987-1991) was therefore around US$ 9
million. Various other sources of assistance, mostly from donor organiza-
tions like IDRC, ADB, CIDA, Commonwealth Fund, JICA, USAID, ODA
(now DFID), the AusAid and ACIAR, were generated for the numerous
specific training, research, and information activities and for exchange of
experts.
in India had in fact informed the work
in Vietnam and Iran on shrimp health
management. In turn, these have been
benefited by the results of ACIAR-as-
sisted projects (in which NACA is
also involved) on shrimp disease in
Thailand and Indonesia. ACIAR has
also embedded a research and capac-
ity building project into the project in
India. A second point is that external
expert assistance is minimal; a cadre of
young local professionals and techni-
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4 Aquaculture Asia Magazine
a shrimp health management program
for small farmers. Starting with a few
farmers in Andhra Pradesh, it has
expanded to 900 farmers in five states.
The project is fully funded by the
Governments Ministry of Commerce,
which has disbursed, in 2000-2005,the sum of US$ 81,400 (paid directly
to NACA for expert assistance on the
various studies that led to the formula-
tion, start-up and initial assistance to
the project) and Indian Rupees 3.05
million (or around US$ 70,000) for in-
country activities including the salaries
of a team (at present 15) young Indian
technicians, recruited and trained by
NACA, MPEDA with expert assistance
from ICAR through its Central Institute
of Brackishwater Aquaculture. This
team provides technical assistance to
farmers. The technical team works with
MPEDAs field officers and is provided
backstopping from ICARs CIBA and
the NACA Headquarters (HQ). One
of the technical backstopping person-
nel is a shrimp farmer from Thailand.
Funds for HQ and external assistance
personnel came from an ACIAR grant
of AU$ 56,000 AUD. The project has
recently expanded to five states and
now includes a marketing component.
After the study and planning phase,NACA has not taken a single Rupee out
of India in helping operate this project.
A second phase has been approved by
MPEDA.
The other case is NACAs support to
a donor-funded (DANIDA) Fisheries
Sector Support Program in Viet Nam.
NACA was also requested by the Gov-
ernment to provide technical support
to the Brackishwater and Mariculture
components of the project. A NACA-
recruited aquatic health managementofficer was fielded and took the lead
role in the health management compo-
nent of the project, which essentially
was focused on shrimp. A NACAfield
office was established in Hanoi and
from implementing DANIDA-support-
ed project, has diversified into provid-
ing assistance to other donor-funded
projects, also with backstopping from
HQ. The value of the NACA-imple-
mented component of the project was
US$ 326,500 from 2003 to 2005. The
Government has made the same request
to NACA for continuing its support for
the second phase of the project.
Investment focus in AsianAquaculture
The viability and relevance of NACA
as an investment can be seen in a bet-
ter perspective in the context of the
progress of the sector. Between 1976- when the idea of a network organiza-
tion was hatched during the 1976 Kyo-
to Global Conference on Aquaculture
organized by FAO/UNDP - and today
there have been four discernible areas
of emphasis in Asian Aquaculture: (1)
Higher productivity and better returns;
(2) better environmental performance;
(3) enhanced livelihood opportunities
and socially responsible farming; and
(4) market access and trade. These
four areas are not mutually exclusive;
while emphasis shifted over the years,
the focus of investments broadened to
eventually embrace all four, described
as follows:
Higher productivity and returns
As expected, in a newly emerging
industry, the years after the Kyoto Con-
ference of 1976 saw the establishment
of pilot-scale models to test technical
and economic viability of commercial-
scale operations. These were initiallybased on existing basic information on
new aquaculture species and farm-
ing systems. To improve productivity
and attract public investments in more
research and private sector investments
in commercial farming, R & D gave
priority to better production technolo-
gies as well as species development.
Traditional production systems largely
developed as an art by farmers through
the ages, e.g. integrated fish farming in
China and composite culture of severalcarp and other species in the Indian
subcontinent which produced much
more biomass and used farm energy
and wastes, began to be studied by
scientists. This enabled technological
improvement on the systems and made
them more susceptible to dissemination
and adaptation to other countries.
To increase the impact of innova-
tions, a mechanism to coordinate and
integrate the various and increasing
number of R & D initiatives that began
to get underway was devised. This
would also avoid duplication of efforts
and therefore waste of investments. It
enabled researchers, otherwise isolated
Ongoing contributions
The total government core con-
tribution to NACA from 1991 to
2005 has been US$ 4.42 mil-
lion. The total external and other
non-core sources of funding it
generated over the same period
was US$ 10.53 million or a ratio
of 2.38, which is in effect the
amount generated for every dol-
lar invested by governments. It
has been increasing: The average
ratio for 2000-2005 was 2.63,
and those in 2004 and 2005 were
2.97 and 3.24, respectively.
The in-kind contribution of
members has not been quanti-
fied, but can be illustrated: China
P.R., starting in 1992, took over
and funded under its TechnicalCooperation among Develop-
ing Countries (TCDC) program
the 3-month training course on
integrated fish farming (IFF) at
the NACA Regional Lead Centre
in Wuxi. The course intake is
usually 40 from Asia-Pacific,
Latin America, Africa, the Near
East and Eastern Europe. Over
25 years of uninterrupted yearly
offering, the IFF has trained
nearly 1,000 personnel. Centresin Thailand, Indonesia, and India
also offer or host regular and pe-
riodic courses for personnel from
government, industry, farmer
associations and NGOs. Their
courses are partially supported
by the governments. Secondly,
regional projects require national
coordinators and the govern-
ments and sometimes universi-
ties provide the institutional (and
a person) focal point for these
regional projects, on an honorary
basis.
cians is trained to provide the techni-
cal assistance to the farmers. Capacity
building activities includes the farmers
associations and the institutions provid-
ing farm services.
Since 2000, NACA has been provid-
ing technical and management assist-ance to Indias Marine Products Export
Development Authority (MPEDA) in
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5January-March 2006
and working alone, to exchange results
and collectively improve on them. It
used scarce national resources, pooled
through cooperation, more cost-effec-
tively. The model, designed and imple-
mented through a UNDP/FAO global
programme on aquaculture develop-ment coordination, was regional net-
working among aquaculture centres run
by governments and operating under
the principle of TCDC - technical coop-
eration among developing countries - in
short, NACA. To bring aquaculture on
a par with livestock husbandry became
the long-term objective of NACA.
This required intensified disciplinary
and interdisciplinary research. The
mechanism encouraged and promoted
basic and applied research, as well as
the application to aquatic organisms of
knowledge from research and farm-
ing systems development of terrestrial
animals. The orientation of technology
development and transfer and capac-
ity building during this stage was the
expansion of regional aquaculture
development in general and commer-
cialscale aquaculture enterprises in
particular. The provision of credit was
linked to a feasible business plan.
Better environmentalperformance
If the global growth of aquaculture
between 1980 and 1990, which was
sustained at 10 percent, can be an
indicator, the NACA strategy, as
advocated by the Kyoto Declaration,
had succeeded and the investment on
the NACA project had paid off. More
than that, this growth owed much to
aquaculture becoming an increasingly
science- and technology-based activity.The rapid growth from the mid-80s was
carried into the mid-90s and spurred
further expansion and intensification.
This rapid and generally uncontrolled
growth however raised concerns of
its effects on the environment, natural
resources, other sectors, and its own
sustainability.
Increasing fish disease problems
drove home the message that aquacul-
ture as practiced is threatening its own
continued viability. An ADB-NACA
regional study in Asia-Pacific1 in
1989-90 for the first time came up with
an estimate of losses to aquaculture
from diseases of US$1.4 billion a year
and made farmers aware of the links
between disease occurrence and envi-
ronmental deterioration. This spurred
investments into improving policies,
regulations, management systems, and
regional and national capacities for
aquatic animal health management.The harsh spotlight trained on shrimp
aquaculture drew investments away
from production technology to more
environmentally benign systems and
technologies, and more efforts on the
development of regulations and poli-
cies to lessen or manage the impacts of
aquaculture on the environment and on
itself.
UNDP/FAO/NACA spearheaded a
regional development project (1987-
1991) that promoted exchange of sea-
farming technologies among countries,
training of technicians and farmers, and
the planning and orderly management
of coastal aquaculture2. Guidelines
were developed for planning. Coastal
aquaculture was then beginning to
expand with increasing emphasis on
shrimp aquaculture and cage culture of
finfish. This regional seafarming de-
velopment and demonstration project,
apart from promoting the exchange of
technology among countries and train-
ing seafarming practitioners, providedor developed regulatory and manage-
ment guidelines that improved the
environmental performance of aquacul-
ture farms.
FAO and NACA, through a re-
gional TCP3 in 1992-1993 conducted
a regional study on Environmental
Management and Assessment of Aqua-
culture Development that focused on
the different impacts of aquaculture on
the environment and on itself and the
other sectors impacts on aquaculture.The study highlighted technologies,
practices, and capacities that needed to
be developed.
The earlier ADB/NACA study on
health management and the FAO/
NACA TCP on environmental as-
sessment and aquaculture develop-
ment prompted governments to look
for more guidelines for sustainable
farming systems and the policies that
would ensure them. This was met by
an ADB/NACA Regional study4 on
Aquaculture Sustainability and the
Environment. A product of this study
was the Aquaculture Sustainability
Action Plan adopted by the Developing
Member Countries of ADB. The farmer
representatives to the final workshop
of this project (October 1995, Beijing)
also requested NACA and ADB to
initiate activities to organize a regional
aquafarmers network. NACA has since
taken this recommendation up with anumber of activities.
With greater awareness of the
importance of health management
governments and private sector began
to invest more in capacity building for
disease prevention and control. At this
stage NACA, OIE or World Animal
Health Organization and the FAO
formed a stronger alliance for health
management and implemented in Asia-
Pacific various collaborative regional
projects. Notable among these were (i)
an FAO TCP5 project with NACA on
Responsible Movement of Live Aquatic
Species that led to the formulation of
the Technical Guidelines and National
Strategies for Responsible Movement
of Aquatic Animals, Disease Diagnostic
Guide, and Surveillance, Reporting and
Information System for Aquatic Animal
Pathogens; and (ii) a capacity building
project for import risk assessment with
APEC6 as well as the SPC, ASEAN and
SEAFDEC and various other organiza-
tions, that involved APEC economies,other non-APEC countries in Latin
America and the Caribbean as well as
in Asia-Pacific. Others included harmo-
nization of procedures on introductions;
development of action plans to imple-
ment the various policies on introduc-
tions, early warning and preparedness;
specific studies on introduction of
certain species likeP. vannamei; a
workshop on aquatic invasive alien
species; molluscan health, and policy
development on introductions, etc.Expertise from countries with advanced
knowledge and experiences in these ar-
eas such as Australia, Canada, France,
Japan, New Zealand, Japan, U.K and
the U.S.A were brought into the region
through these various linter-linked and
collaborative projects.
It was during this period that the
environmental and socio-economic
issues took primacy over the productiv-
ity, economic viability, and profitability
concerns. Economic concerns broad-
ened from cost- and-returns (private
benefit) to internalizing environmen-
tal and social costs of polluting and
resource-degrading practices (environ-
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6 Aquaculture Asia Magazine
mental benefits). The influence of this
period on attitudes of farmers is that it
made good business sense to be envi-
ronmentally responsible.
Better livelihoods and social
responsibility
At the close of the decade of the 90s, a
regional aquaculture planning work-
shop (in August 1999) attended by 19
Asia-Pacific governments came up with
the assessment that aquaculture in most
Asian countries generally had become
a better-organized economic sector,
characterized by stronger private sector
participation and increasing state sup-
port. It noted a number of fundamental
shifts:
that farmers aspirations for higher
yields and better returns from in-
novations in production technology
have been tempered with concerns
for sustainability;
that the aim of gaining higher re-
turns has been joined by schemes to
share benefits equitably; and
that the primary purposes of pro-
ducing more food, earning higher
incomes and improving economies
have expanded to ensuring that
enough food is produced and madeaccessible to the masses and that the
poorer participants in the aquacul-
ture sector gain a better livelihood.
The observation on equity and liveli-
hoods reflected the increasing attention
by development assistance institutions,
donor agencies, civil society, and gov-
ernments on the impact of aquaculture
and aquatic resources exploitation on
the societal objectives of poverty alle-
viation and assuring food security. The
review onfi
nancing and institutionalsupport for aquaculture development
made at the 2000 Conference on Aqua-
culture in the Third Millennium noted
that international development assist-
ance was increasingly directed towards
poverty alleviation, and urged that the
assistance needs to adhere to basic
principles of social equity, including
gender, environmental sustainability,
technical feasibility, economic viability
and good governance.
The FAO Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries was adopted
in 1995. During this stage, research,
technology, policy and institutional
services were increasingly oriented to
the needs of small producers includ-
ing subsistence farmers, and paid more
attention to the circumstances of the
disadvantaged groups (the landless, the
women especially those that are heads
of families, aquatic product gatherers,
farm workers, etc.). Social responsibil-ity, in addition to environmental friend-
liness of aquaculture, began to perme-
ate project planning during this period.
Ways to focus aquaculture on poverty
alleviation (or not having it exacerbate
poverty) were studied.
It was at this period when the trend
began in the down-sizing of most
public-funded initiatives. Among other
responses, assessments were carried out
on the impacts of the R & D efforts of
the past 20 years. Generally, because
of the regional coordination mecha-
nism, it was found to be cost-effective:
resources were pooled, results were
shared, efforts were not duplicated,
and governments did not have to go
through the costly exercise of reinvent-
ing the wheel. Mixed results however
were found in local applications. The
findings highlighted that the effective-
ness of research application depended
on institutional capacities. The outcome
was to include institutional strengthen-
ing as a researchable issue. Thus beganthe research studies and pilot programs
on co-management, voluntary manage-
ment mechanisms, and more broadly
participatory planning and implementa-
tion mechanisms. Aquaculture planning
became integrated into overall rural
development planning.
Better access to markets and fair
trade
This is the current area of priorityconcern and in which governments
have been investing resources, spurred
largely by food safety issues that
ramified into broader market access
and trade issues. They now include
eco-labeling to enable consumers to
express their environmental and social
concerns. Farmers now have to contend
not only with the quality and price of
products but how they are produced
and what impacts the farming practice
has on the environment, biodiversity
and welfare of farm workers (now also
of the fish).
The global trade liberalization
agenda has had a marked impact on
seafood trade. Resolutions and agree-
ments on market access issues, regu-
latory measures on health and food
safety requirements, and a host of other
forms of technical barriers to trade are
expected to affect seafood exports,
especially from developing countries.A driving force has also been the
need to comply with an ever-increas-
ing number and stringency of market
requirements. The flashpoint likely had
been the rejection of shrimp exports
by EU but a combination of technical
barriers of trade, Sanitary and Phyto-
Sanitary measures, and non-tariff
barriers to trade prompted the broad-
ening and hastening of initiatives that
were already in place such as ASEANs
focus on competitiveness in trade, and
the Consortium (of FAO, NACA,WB,
WWF and UNEP) on Shrimp Farming
and the Environments work on interna-
tional principles for responsible shrimp
farming that are aimed at developing
uniform certification standards and best
management practices.
Government and private sector insti-
tutions are developing policies on and
embarking in food safety programmes
(i.e. Thailands Farm to Plate) like
HACCP, investing in research, exten-
sion, hardware (to detect banned anti-biotics and drugs at the level required
by importers and train personnel to run
the HACCP schemes and operate the
equipment) investing in IT program
development (for traceability, as in
Thailand), and developing regulations
as well as promoting voluntary man-
agement mechanisms such as Codes of
Conduct and Best Management Prac-
tices to support producers, especially
the small-scale, address the complex
issues surrounding food safety andecolabelling.
The response of Governments and of
the production and processing sectors
are seen as beneficial to aquaculture in
the long run, largely by making the sec-
tor more competitive and environmen-
tally responsible. On the other hand,
apprehensions have been expressed
as to their impacts on the small and
poor farmers, which do not enjoy the
economy of scale to be able to comply
cost-effectively with the requirements.
On this point, experiences from NACA
projects and those under the STREAM
Initiative7 are providing examples that
organizing small farmers and poor
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7January-March 2006
Research & farming techniques
aquatic gatherers and adoption of
voluntary mechanisms like BMPs and
Codes of Practices can improve their
productivity and quality of their prod-
uct, provide environmental benefits,
enable them to attain economy of scale
and be able to transact with suppliersand buyers on a stronger footing and at
less cost, and comply with increasingly
stringent market access requirements.
NACAs development coincided
with these four areas of emphasis and
its regional work programme addressed
the associated issues. To operate the
work programme and address the is-
sues, NACA generated support for ma-
jor regional and national activities from
bilateral, multilateral and investment
agencies; since 1990 there have been
more than 65 collaborative projects,
workshops, assessments, and informa-
tion development activities of regional,
subregional and national as well as
inter-regional scope. In the aftermath of
the tsunami, NACA became involved
in various planning, learning, and man-
agement activities to restore livelihoods
and develop the stricken communities.
It joined a consortium8 comprising
BOBP-IGO, FAO, SEAFDEC and
World Fish Centre that has since jointly
organized regional activities to de-
velop, with affected countries, NGOs
and other organizations, strategies and
guidelines for rehabilitating and devel-
oping livelihoods based on aquaculture
and capture fisheries.
No attempt has been made to meas-
ure the internal rate of return to FAOand UNDPs, other donors, and the
subsequent Governments investments
in the NACA Project and in the NACA
Organization, but the multiplier effects
of this small investment, which is little
more than US$ 13 million spread over
25 years or some US$ 500,000 a year,
could not be small.
References
1. ADB/NACA.1991. Fish Health Management in
Asia-Pacific. Report of a Regional Study and Work-
shop on Fish Disease and Fish Health Management.
ADB Agriculture Department Report Series No.1.
Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific,
Bangkok, Thailand.
2. TCP/RAS/87 and 90. Regional Seafarming Demon-
stration and Development Project, with nine partici-
pating governments including China, Hong Kong ,
Indonesia, India, Korea DPR, Korea Rep, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand; it operated from
1987 to 1991.
3. TCP/RAS/2253 Environmental Assessment and
Management of Aquaculture.
4. ADB-NACA. 1998. Report of the Study and
Workshop on Aquaculture Sustainability and the
Environment (RETA 5534). Bangkok. 492p.
5. TCP/RAS/6714 (A) and 9065 (A) Assistance for the
Responsible Movement of Live Aquatic Animals
launched in 1998 and participated by 21 countries
(Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China P.R.,
Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan,
Korea (DPR), Korea RO, Lao PDR, Malaysia, My-
anmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Pakistan, Singapore,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Viet Nam).
6. Arthur, J.R., M.G. Bondad-Reantaso, F.C. Baldock,
C.J. Rodgers and B.F. Edgerton. 2004. Manual on
risk analysis for the safe movement of aquatic ani-
mals (FWG/01/2002). APEC/DoF/NACA/FAO. 59
p. APEC Publication Number: APEC # 203-FS-03.1.
7. STREAM (short for Support to Regional Aquatic
Resources Management) was established by a
consortium of DFID, FAO, NACA and Voluntary
Services Overseas, an international NGO. The
fore-runner of STREAM in NACA was an earlier
FAO-NACA programme called Aquaculture for
Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Development, which
was subsequently recast into an initiative based on
DFIDs Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. See
www.streaminitiative.org.
8. CONSRN is the acronym of the Consortium to Re-
store Shattered Livelihoods in Tsunami-Devastated
Nations. See www.apfic.org. Go to the tsunami web
page for CONSRN Reports.
Nursery rearing of Puntius gonionotus: A preliminary trial
*K.N. Mohanta, J.K. Jena and S.N. Mohanty
Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, 751 002, India.
Email: [email protected].
Carps form the backbone of freshwateraquaculture in India constituting about
85% of the total freshwater aquaculture
production. Ever since the standardiza-
tion of carp breeding technology in In-
dia during the early seventies, the major
share of freshwaterfish production in
the country has been through six spe-
cies of carps; namely the three Indian
Major Carps (rohu,Labeo rohita; catla,
Catla catla and mrigal, Cirrhinus mri-
gal) and three exotic carps (grass carp,
Hypothalmichthys molitrix; silver carp,
Ctenopharyngedon idella, and common
carp, Cyprinus carpio). The need of
the hour in the freshwater aquaculture
sector in India is species diversification.
The country is endowed with 10-12varieties of economically important
medium and minor carps suitable for
exploitation in freshwater aquaculture
and that have tremendous scope to
complement or substitute for the six
prevailing carps varieties in Indian
freshwater aquaculture system. Among
them,Puntius gonionotus is an impor-
tant medium carp with high consumer
preference. This fish was introduced
to India during 1972 from Indonesia
for controlling aquatic weeds. Later on
during the 1990s the culture potential
of this species was realized. The ad-
vantage of this species over other carp
is that it is a self-recruiting species that
can breed naturally in lentic water afterone year and can grow to a marketable
size 0f 200-300g within 3-4 months.
Nursery rearing is an important
aspect of carp culture that can greatly
affect the total fish yield at the final
harvest. Most Indian farmers use carp
fry as a stocking material in grow out
ponds, which are easily susceptible
to predation by carnivorous and weed
fishes that are found in the ponds. Even
when farmers attempt control measures
to eliminate these unwanted fishes dur-
ing pond preparation (before stocking
the seeds) they often manage to enter
again. However, it is often observed
that when advanced nursery-reared carp
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fingerlings are stocked in ponds the
survival rate offish at the final harvest
is greater than 90% as the larger size
sized seed are less vulnerable to preda-
tion. Therefore, the nursery rearing
of carp for a period of 2-3 months is
prerequisite for successful carp culture.Although there are many reports of
nursery rearing of three Indian major
carps and three exotic carps, there is lit-
tle information available on this aspect
of culture for the silver barbPuntius
gonionotus. Therefore, in the present
study an attempt was made to docu-
ment strategies for the nursery rearing
of advancedP. gonionotus fry for a
period of two months in an earthen
nursery pond using a balanced formu-
lated feed. The growth, survival, and
other nutritional indices of the fish were
studied in detail.
Approach
Pond preparation
A 0.04 ha nursery pond was selected
for the experimental trials. The water
was pumped out completely during the
month of July then bleaching powder
(30% active chlorine) was applied at 30
kg/ha in order to eradicate unwantedpredatory and weed fish. Almost all
fishes were killed within 2-3 hours of
bleaching application and removed
by hand picking. After seven days of
bleaching power application the pond
was refilled to a depth of 1m depth by
pumping. The pH level of water was
maintained at 7.6 by application of lime
at 100 kg/ha. After two days of lime
application, the first dose of manure in
the form of row cow dung was applied
at 10,000 kg/ha. Subsequently, ureaand single super phosphate was applied
at 30kg and 100kg/ha, respectively.
Plankton was collected using a plank-
ton net (100 m mesh size) from other
fish culture ponds and then released to
the experimental nursery pond as an
innoculum. After seven days sufficient
plankton had developed, assessed by
filtering 50 litres of water from differ-
ent part of the experimental nursery
pond. The plankton density was found
to be 1.5 ml-2.0 ml/ 50 litres of water.
Coir ropes were tied in 1 m intervals
above the pond using bamboo poles
across the length and breadth of the
dykes so as to scare the predatory birds
and check their entry in to the pond.
Procurement of seed
Fry ofP. gonionotus (average weight
0.40.02 g) were procured from thehatchery of the Central Institute of
Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar
during the morning hours. The stocked
fish were acclimatized to the ambient
temperature of nursery pond for three
hours and then released at a stocking
rate of 100,000/ha.
Feeding and other management
practices
Twenty-four hours after stocking,
the fish were fed with a powdered basal
diet. The percent and chemical compo-
sitions of experimental diet are shownin Table 2 and Table 3, respectively.
The feed was supplied to the fish at
10% of body weight for a period of 30
days and then reduced to 5% for the
next 30 days of the experiment. The
fish were fed twice daily at 10.00 and
15.00 hours. The growth of the fish
was observed in every 15 days and the
daily ration was adjusted accordingly.
Male (above) and female (below) Puntius goniotus after 120 days of culture.
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Intermediary application of fertilizer
was conducted at 50kg and 100 kg/ha
of urea and single super-phosphate,
respectively. The pond was manured
with a second dose of raw cow dung at
5,000 kg/ha after one month of stock-
ing.The growth data indicated that
the fish grow from an initial average
weight of 0.4 0.05 g to 15.6 0.43 g
within 60 days. The observed survival
rate was 89.64%. The total weight gain
(g/fish), average daily weight gain
(mg/day/fish), percent weight gain,
nitrogen intake (mg/day/fish), food
conversion ratio, specific growth rate,
net protein retention, protein efficiency
ratio, energy retention efficiency (%),
lipid retention efficiency (%), normal-
ised biomass index, average hepato-
somatic index, average viserosomatic
index, thermal growth coefficient and
instantaneous growth rate were studied
and are presented in Table 4. The initial
and final carcass compositions of the
fish are shown in Table 5. The range of
water quality parameters are depicted
in Table 1.
Discussion
In India, the practice of raising the fryto fingerling size and to sell them at a
better market price (Rs.10,000-15,000/
thousand fingerlings of size 15.0 to
20.0g) is now fast becoming a profit-
able seasonal business for small and
marginal farmers particularly during
the monsoon season. These days many
farmers prefer to stock advanced fin-
gerling over the conventional method
of stocking fry in cultured fish ponds.
When stocking advanced fingerlings in
grow-out ponds the survival rate foundto be better as they are big enough to
protect themselves from predation by
birds and carnivorous fish generally
found inside the culture pond. Another
benefit is that fish can also attain the
marketable size in 7-8 months instead
of 10-12 months by stocking advanced
fingerlings. Usually farmers rear the
fish in nursery pond at a higher stock-
ing density. In the present experiment,
the fish were stocked at a stocking
density of 1,00,00/ha and supplemented
with good quality balanced feed having
30.27% crude protein and 3.85 kcal/g
energy levels. Optimum water quality
was maintained throughout the experi-
Parameters Range
Temperature (C) 26.5 28.3
PH 7.5 7.8
Dissolved oxygen (DO) (mg/l) 5.2-5.6
Alkalinity (mg CaCO3/l) 112.23-117.29Hardness (mg CaCO3/l) 105.13-108.93
NH3N (mg/l) 0.06-0.15 mg/l
NO3-N (mg/l) 12-18 mg/l
NO2-N (mg/l) 0.08-0.12 mg/l
P2O
5-P (mg/l) 0.05 mg/l
Transparency (cm) 35-42
Table 1. Range of water quality parameters during the study.
Feed Ingredients Percent composition
Fish meal 10
Ground nut cake 25
Soybean 30
Rice bran 32
Mineral and vitamin mixture 3
Table 2. Percent composition of feed used in the experiment.
Parameter Percent composition
Dry matter 89.25
Crude protein 30.27
Crude fibre 9.55
Ether extract 8.95
NFE 40.48
Energy (kcal/g) 3.85
Table 3. Proximate composition of feed used.
Parameters Value
Average weight gain (g) offish 15.20
Average daily weight gain (mg/day/fish) 253.33
Percent weight gain 3800
Nitrogen intake (mg/day/fish) 11.07
Food conversion ratio 0.98
Specific growth rate 6.105
Condition factor 1.11
Protein efficiency ratio 3.365
Protein retention efficiency (%) 45.41
Lipid retention efficiency (%) 61.25
Energy retention efficiency (%) 30.11
Normalised biomass index 13,484
Average hepatosomatic index 2.95
Average viscerosomatic index 9.42
Thermal growth coefficient 1.005 x 10-3
Instantaneous growth rate (g/day/fish) 0.114
Table 4. Growth performance ofPuntius gonionotus fry in nursery
pond.
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Parameters Initial values Final values
Moisture 78.0 76.0
Crude protein 56.82 57.73
Crudefibre 6.53 5.86Ether extract 14.25 22.82
Total ash 15.25 11.10
Acid insoluble ash 6.28 5.92
Gross energy (kcal/g) 4.18 4.85
Table 5. Initial and final carcass compositions (%) of the experimental
fish.
mental period (Table 1). The incidence
of disease and abnormality were not
found in the cultured fish. The observed
survival rate 89.64% ofP. gonionotus
from fry to fingerling in the present
experiment was found to be better than
the survival rate obtained in the nurseryrearing of other carps as reported
elsewhere by earlier workers. For
calculation of food conversion ratio, the
nutritional contribution of planktons in
pond was not considered. Therefore,
the food conversion ratio found in the
present experiment might have less
than 1.0. The other nutritional indices
of growth performances are also found
to be satisfactory (Table 4). Aside from
ether extract, which increased from
14.25 to 22.92 %, there was not much
difference in the initial and final body
carcass compositions of the fish, which
indicated that as the fish grows the lipid
content in the muscle increases.
Conclusion
The outcomes of our study indicate that
in nursery rearing ofPuntius goniono-
tus fry at a moderate stocking density
of 100,000/ha with a provision of bal-
anced feed and optimum water quality
maintenance, a survival rate of as highas 89.64 % with 3800 % weight gain
over initial can be achieved within 60
days.
A haul of Puntius goniotus after 120 days of harvest.
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Artemia enrichment and biomass production for larval
finfish and shellfish culture
A. S. Ninawe
Director, Department of Biotechnology, BlockII, 7th Floor, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi110003.
In aquaculture operations, feed is an
important input and typically accounts
for 5060% of the recurring invest-
ment. Feed organisms play an impor-
tant role in the dietary regimen of cul-
tivable fish and shellfish, particularly
in the larval stages, with zooplankton,
such as copepods, rotifers, larval stages
of molluscs and small crustaceans
routinely utilized as feeds during larval
development. The most important live
feed organisms areArtemiasalina,
rotiferBrachionus plicalitis and various
freshwater cladocerans such asMoina
spp. Although many artificial feeds
have been formulated and compounded
none have been found to perform better
than the brine shrimpArtemia, which is
given as a live feed to 85% of species
cultivated in aquaculture around the
world. Because of its unique nature and
role,Artemia has revolutionized theaquaculture industry; especially prawn
culture and salt production in many ad-
vanced countries. The recent develop-
ments in aquaculture production have
further resulted in increased demands
forArtemia.
Among the live feed organisms,
the brine shrimpArtemia comes in
for prime consideration because of its
nutritional and operational advantages.
Artemia nauplii are considered to be the
best food for mysis larvae and pelagicpost-larvae of shrimp and contain about
4055% protein, 4-20% fat and suf-
ficient amounts of essential amino acids
and fatty acids. Although expensive,
Artemia provides good survival and is
more consistent in hatchery production
than any other larval food. The ease of
feedingArtemia and its superior nutri-
tional quality ensure that it will be used
in hatcheries for many years to come if
supplies can keep up with the demand.
Biotype distribution andzoogeography:
Brine shrimpArtemia have a discon-
tinuous distribution in more than 300
natural biotopes in temperate and
tropical regions of the world. In nature
they are found in hyper-saline lakes,
brine ponds and lagoons and man made
salterns. Due to geographical isolation,
populations ofArtemia have diversified
into more than 150 reported strains. Of
the 250 reported areas reported to have
Artemia populations only a few are ex-
ploited for aquaculture purposes. Most
of the others have not been surveyed
for potential exploitation. Recent find
spots ofArtemia are scattered through-
out the tropical, sub tropical and tem-
perate climatic zones along coastlines
as well as inland, sometimes at 100
miles from sea. There are numerousscattered reports about brine shrimp oc-
currence, both in inland salt lakes and
in coastal salt works from the Indian
subcontinent with over 14 find spots
reported from the states of Tamil Nadu,
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Exploration ofArtemia popula-
tions have been carried out in Europe,
USA and Canada thorough inventory
campaigns in recent decades. Infor-
mation about Africa, especially the
sub-Saharan part of continent remainslimited. Intensive exploration work has
conducted in several countries of South
America, China, Iran and in the coun-
tries of the former Soviet Union with a
focus on the Central Asian Republics
and Southern Siberia. Although valu-
able characterization work has been
done for many of the main commer-
cially exploited populations and strains,
the status of many of the non-exploited
populations is less well known, with
only fragmentary information available.
Collection from naturalhabitat
Natural populations ofArtemia are
found in large salt lakes and coastal
saline areas. Different geographical
strains have adapted to widely fluctuat-
ing conditions with regard to tempera-
ture and ionic composition of medium.
In salt works,Artemia is normally only
found in evaporation ponds at inter-
mediate salinity levels from about 100
ppt onwards up to 200-250 ppt. At high
salinity levels depending on the local
strains as well as hydrological condi-
tions in the ponds, cysts are eventually
produced and are driven by the wind
and accumulate on the shore of ponds.
The quality ofArtemia differs from
strain to strain and location to location.
Artemia are exploited in the form of
cysts of adult biomass, mainly for usein aquaculture and shrimp hatcheries.
AdultArtemia are mainly collected
from shallow salt ponds, either directly
in water or after being thrown on shore
where they accumulate in reddish
brown layers, several cm thick and
many meters in length.
In the 1970s commercial supplies
were mainly from natural sources in
the United States and Canada to the
extent of 3050 metric tones/year,
but production later improved to 100metric tones as a result of commercial
aquaculture. Many commercial harvest-
ers and distributors sold brands of vari-
ous qualities. Approximately 90% of
the worlds commercial harvest of brine
shrimp cysts comes from the Great Salt
Lake in Utah. It is reported that nor-
mally 200,000 to 300,000 nauplii might
hatch from each gram of high quality
cysts. Good quality cysts can fetch up
to US$ 80 per kilo.
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Artemia culture in India
Artemia are widely distributed and
found in saltpans and salt lakes
throughout the world. The success of
rearing technology greatly depends
upon the availability ofArtemia nau-
plii. Apart from being easy to handle,
eggs of brine shrimp are capable of
being dormant over a long period and
hatching out readily when suitableconditions are given. The eggs in the
brood pouch develop into either free-
swimming nauplii that are set free by
the parent, or when reaching gastrula
stage they are surrounded by a thick
shell and are deposited as cysts measur-
ing 0.20.3 mm in diameter, which are
in a state of diapause. The eggs are gen-
erally collected from natural sources,
dried and stored in containers in a cool
and dry place. When introduced into
normal seawater, they hatch out within48 hours at room temperature into tiny
nauplii. Instead of seawater, a solution
prepared from common salt dissolved
in freshwater can also be used as a me-
dium for hatching eggs. After hatching,
the free-swimming nauplii are separat-
ed from the unhatched cysts and empty
shells, since these can interfere with the
digestion of larvae and may even cause
blockage of the gut.
Although the main source ofAr-
temia eggs continues to be the natural
grounds in salt pans, attempts are being
made to culture them in artificial condi-
tions so as to ensure a steady supply of
eggs and nauplii as and when required.
The driedArtemia cysts are introduced
into filtered seawater at the rate of 1
gm/litre and provided with aeration
and light, which stimulate the embry-
onic development. The free-swim-
ming nauplii hatch out within 18-36
hours after hydration in seawater. The
nauplii are collected and introduced
into a plastic pool or tank at the rate of
1000 nauplii/litre. The salinity of the
culture tank is raised gradually up to80% until that time the larvae mature
at around 1214 days post-hatching.
The fertilized eggs develop into nauplii
in the brood sac and are released into
the culture tank every 45 days. The
adults may survive up to three months
and release around 100180 young,
depending upon the culture environ-
ment. Continuous mass culture can be
maintained with partial water changes
and harvesting. The single cell algae
Chlorella, Tetraselmis, yeast or bacteriacultures are used to feedArtemia.
Under unfavourable conditions, such
as very high salinity and low oxygen
levels,Artemia switch from production
of live young to production of dormant
cysts, through secretion of chlorine by
a gland in the brood pouch. The cysts
released into the water and adhere into
sides of the culture tank, where they
can be collected, dried and stored in a
closed container or in saturated high
saline water for up to 68 months for
future use.
Considerable progress has been
achieved in the Marine Prawn Cul-
ture Laboratory of the Central Marine
Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI)
at Narakkal, where it has been possible
to maintain generations ofArtemia
under laboratory conditions. The brine
shrimp can easily be maintained in
fiberglass tanks or plastic pools con-
taining seawater and fed on yeast and
unicellular algae.Artemia nauplii and
larger stages are fed to penaeid prawn
larvae from mysis stage onwards. It
has been found that on average an earlyshrimp postlarvae eats around 80 brine
shrimp nauplii per day. Assuming the
hatch rate ofArtemia eggs to be around
50%, it is estimated that around 5 kg
ofArtemia eggs along with 70 kg of
minced bivalve meat are required to
raise 1 million advanced post larvae to
20 days in age.
Enrichment ofArtemia
Artemia strains differ in size andnutritional quality, particularly in
content of highly unsaturated fatty acid
(HUFA).Artemia composition is gener-
ally in the range of 5155% protein,
1415% carbohydrate, 1319% fat
and 315% n-3 HUFA. When ana-
lyzed on a dry weight basis, cysts of a
well-knownArtemia strain contained
28% crude protein, 10% crude fiber and
10% crude fat. Enrichment techniques
for improving the nutritional value of
live foods are widely used in marine
fish hatcheries. SmallArtemia cysts
with high HUFA content originate
from USA and are produced in several
parts of the world under controlled
On-grown cultured artemia. Resting cysts are beginning to form.
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conditions in salt operations. Freshly
hatchedArtemia is used as feed as
they are most nutritious. However, the
lipid level and fatty acid composition
of newly hatchedArtemia nauplii can
be highly variable, depending upon the
strain. The performance of larval fish isdirectly related to the level of HUFA in
Artemia being fed to them and essential
fatty acids are the principal food value
ofArtemia. When level of HUFA is
low, survival of larval fish also de-
clines.
The premium qualityArtemia with
high hatching rates, small size and
greater HUFA levels are relatively ex-
pensive and sometimes difficult to find
in quantity. To compensate for a poor
HUFA level inArtemia, they can be
enriched with omega yeast, vitamins,
marine oils, vitamin B-12 producing
bacteria and commercial enrichment
media. As an alternative, a hatchery
can purchase a commercial enrichment
product to treat lower qualityArtemia.
In 1980s, researchers found that fish
larvae fed strains containing more than
4% eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) 20:5
n-3, had significantly better growth
than those fed withArtemia containing
less than 3% EPA. Recent research has
suggested that docosahexaenoic acid(DHA) 22:6 n-3 is the most important
HUFA for marine fish larvae. These
high EPAArtemia are equal to HUFA
enrichedArtemia in terms of nutritional
value but are helpful in bridging the
gap between rotifers and enriched day
oldArtemia.
The essential fatty acids DHA and
EPA, and also DHA/EPA ratio, are
important for normal pigmentation and
affect metamorphosis and stress toler-
ance in marinefi
shes. FeedingArtemiato cold-water species may have certain
negative effects as reported in species
like halibut and cod. Halibut fed exclu-
sively on brine shrimp for the first few
weeks often appear malpigmented with
unnatural morphological appearance.
However, natural zooplankton produces
high quality juveniles. Consequently,
worldwide research is undergoing to
develop a feed that can replaceAr-
temia.Artemia enriched with DHA-rich
phospholipid extract are currently being
tested in the first feeding of halibut lar-
vae. Larvae of cold water species, e.g.
Atlantic halibut, can contain high levels
of DHA (2530% of total lipids) and
also have a high DHA/EPA ratio at
onset of exogenous feeding, indicating
that these larvae need high amounts
of DHA and DHA/EPA ratios in their
feed. However, such high levels have
not been achieved when using tradition-
al feed enrichment products based onemulsified fish oils. Work carried out to
test enrichment products that facilitate
high content of DHA and DHA/EPA
ratios inArtemia shows that DHA spray
dried phospholipid diets have resulted
in the highest DHA content and highest
DHA/EPA ratio reported so far. The
DHA content of enrichedArtemia was
17.2% of total fatty acids, which is
almost similar to that present in halibut
larvae at onset of exogenous feeding.
Maximal DHA/EPA ratio inArtemia
enriched with DHA phospholipid diets,
in both sets of experiments, ranged
from 2.783.8, which is even higher
than that found in halibut larvae. These
findings suggest that cold-water species
and flatfishes need high levels of DHA
and high DHA/EPA ratios in the feed.
Through the yearsArtemia have
proved to be one of the easiest to pre-
pare and most nutritious foods availa-
ble to the hatchery managers for rearing
larval finfish and crustaceans. There are
a number of enrichment products in themarket.Artemia systems Inve. (Gent,
Belgium), Aquafauna Bio-marine Inc.
and Sanders Brine Shrimp Company
are among the companies that carry
these products. A large number of com-
panies are also producing algal pastes
or concentrates that can be used as food
supplements forArtemia.
Evaluation ofArtemia cysts
The quality ofArtemia cysts varies ac-cording to strain or commercial brand.
Lack of information on hatching per-
formance of cysts could also lead to un-
economical utilization. Determination
of cyst quality is therefore essential to
the efficient use ofArtemia. Cyst qual-
ity can be assessed on the basis of its
moisture content, hatching efficiency,
hatching percentage and output. Adults
as well as cysts can be contaminated
with high levels of heavy metals and
chlorinated hydrocarbon. Thus quality
assessment of adultArtemia is essential
before its commercial exploitation.Ar-
temia cysts and biomass harvested from
the lake often have low hatchability and
survival percentage. Quality assurance
approaches such as HACCP covering
all aspects ofArtemia production in-
cluding cleaning and washing, process-
ing and drying, storage and decapsula-
tion procedures are important to ensure
a consistent quality end product.
Development of farmingpractices
In India, no systematic attempts have
been made in exploitation and scientific
culture ofArtemia so far. Cultivation
technology has been at an experimental
stage in many of the Indian laborato-
ries for several years. Several research
organizations including the Central Ma-
rine Fisheries Research Institute (CM-
FRI), Central Institute of Brackishwater
Aquaculture (CIBA) and National
Institute of Oceanography (NIO) have
done some basic research on laboratory
and small-scale field production. The
fatty acid (HUFA) contents of the cysts
from such trials were about 3.2 mg/g
and yields too low at 0.5-2 kg/ha/month
compared to international standards of
more than 4 kg/ha/month. Tata Chemi-
cals Ltd. and M/s Ballarpur Industries
Ltd have also made some attempts at
cultivation and produced about 0.5kg of cyst/ha/month. The low rate of
production ofArtemia cyst is due to the
lack of input of scientific techniques in
the culture and processing ofArtemia.
India is reported to have 176,848
ha of saltpan with the current salt
production of around 987,000 lakh/
tones/year. Due to the low return from
salt farming, about 46% of commer-
cially exploited saltpans have been
abandoned in India. About 88,420 ha
condenser area is available capable ofproducing more than 1,000 tonnes of
cysts, which can be used to produce
shrimp in the reservoir through use of
Artemia biomass as feed. The present
requirement forArtemia in India is
estimated to be around 150 tonnes/year
and this is expected to increase to more
than 300 tonnes by 2010. This require-
ment forArtemia cysts can be met with
an investment of Rs. 1.2 billion on
its import. Shortages in the supply of
Artemia are an impending development
in aquaculture due to high global de-
mand and high price of cysts. In India,
commercial exploitation has not been
carried out in earnest and only a small
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quantity is harvested in Gujarat for use
in the pet fish industry. Thus, there is
no serious commercial exploitation of
Artemia biomass production in India.
Global projection and
requirement
Presently the worlds yearly consump-
tion ofArtemia cysts is estimated over
2,000 tonnes. The principle source of
theArtemia is the Great Salt Lake,
Utah, USA. About 10 companies that
control the harvesting produce more
than 1,500 tonnes of cysts per year,
which accounts for more than 90% of
the worlds commercial production.
Although other large salt lakes featur-
ing populations ofArtemia exist, these
lakes have not been commercially ex-
ploited, mainly because little is known
about their productive potential. On the
other hand there is a new market for
Artemia cysts of high nutritional value,
forfirst feeding in aquaculture opera-
tions. Besides cysts,Artemia biomass is
in high demand due to its high nutri-
tional value forfish and shrimp larvae.
This biomass is also utilized by the
ornamental fish industry. Live biomass
is sold at US$ 2/kg in USA and Europe
and frozen biomass at the rate of US$5/kg. Cultivation ofArtemia biomass
was developed in China around the
Bohay Bay area. More than 20,000
tonnes were collected in the salt works
and sold at the rate of US$ 0.2/kg for
use as food in larval culture and grow
out shrimp culture operations.
Economics and economy inArtemia production
The demand forArtemia is very highand one kg of cyst produced in India
costs Rs. 1,000 to 1,500. Culture and
trade in cysts and biomass could gener-
ate substantial earnings from domestic
and export markets.Artemia farming in
India is expanding very slowly due to a
lack of information on culture tech-
niques. By the turn of century, India is
aiming to produce 100,000 tonnes of
cultured shrimps, for which seeds have
to be produced. Higher production and
sales are expected as a result of fast de-
velopment in shrimp and prawn culture
industry and further diversification of
Artemia products. In view of the rapid
expansion of the aquaculture industry
it is projected that demand for biomass
will increase very significantly in com-
ing years.
The annual production ofArtemia
cysts in India is currently less than one
tonne and the quality is low compared
to that of imported cysts (6.2 mg/gHUFA and
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6. Granvil, D., Treece (2000)Artemia production for
Marine larval fish culture, SRAC publication no.
702: October 2000.
7. Hudinaga, M. and Kittaka, J. (1966) studies on food
and growth of larval stage of a prawn, Penaeus
japonicus with reference to the application to
practical mass culture, Inf. Bull. Planktol. Japan, 13:
8394.
8. Hudinaga, M. and Miyamoura (1962) Breeding
of he Kuruma prawn (Penaeus japonicus Bate), J.
Oceanogr. Soc., Japan, 20: 696706.
9. Moti, Harel, Sureyya, Ozkizilcik, Eric, Lund, Paul
Behrens and Allen R., Place, (1999) Enhanced
Absorption of Docosahexanoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3)
inArtemia nauplii using a dietary combination of
DHA-rich phosphplipids and DHA-Sodium salts,
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part B,
Vol. 124 (2): 169-76.
10. Palanichamy, S. (1996) Continuous mass culture of
live feed-to-feed different stages of prawn and fish-
es, Bull Cent. Mar. Fish Res. Inst., 48: 117119.
11. Sahul Hameed, A. S., Murthi, B. L. M., Rasheed,
M., Sathish, S., Yoganandhan, K., Murugan, V. and
Kunthala Jayaraman (2002) An investigation ofAr-
temia as a possible vector for white spot syndrome
virus (WSSV) transmission to Penaeus indicus,
Aquacuture, 204:110.
12. Sorgeloss, P., Lavens, P., Legar, P., Tackaert, W. and
Versichela, D. (1986) Manual for culture and use of
brine shrimpArtemia in aquaculture,Artemia Refer-
ence Centre, State University of Ghent, Belgium.
Vembanad Lake: A potential spawner bank of the giant
freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergiion the
southwest coast of India
Paramaraj Balamurugan1, Pitchaimuthu Mariappan2and Chellam Balasundaram1
1. Crustacean Aquaculture and Behaviour unit, Department of Animal Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli.
620 024, Tamilnadu, India, email [email protected]; 2. Department of Biotechnology, J.J. College of Arts and Science,
Pudukkottai, 622404, India.
In India, seed of the giant freshwater
prawnMachrobrachiumrosenbergii
(often known locally as scampi) is
produced with variable levels of suc-
cess as no specific criteria are followed
to evaluate broodstock quality for
hatchery seed production. Moreover,
commercial hatcheries obtain brooders
either from wild stock1 or from grow-
out ponds2. The soaring demand for
seed cannot be fully met from the wild.Moreover, wild stocks ofM. rosenber-
gii have declined rapidly in recent years
due to over exploitation3, habitat loss
and increased pollution particularly in
southeast Asia4. This has been docu-
mented from countries including Bang-
ladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Thailand5. These days,
commercial farms are the main supply
source of broodstock for hatcheries.
Inevitably, the stocks used by commer-
cial farms are experiencing a decline in
productivity due to inbreeding depres-
sion as hatchery-produced siblings are
recycled as broodstock over multiple
generations5. Farm reared females also
attain sexual maturity much earlier than
their wild counterparts6; the size at first
maturity is also smaller and character-
ized by relatively poor fecundity and
larval viability. These issues gener-
ally result in a reduction in the mean
size of cultured scampi in subsequent
generations. The recent occurrence of
white tail disease in farm rearedM.
rosenbergii is also a major threat to its
culture in India. These issues need to beaddressed, and overfishing of the wild
stock reduced, in order to improve the
sustainability of the industry and to lay
a foundation for genetic improvement
programs of farmed stocks.
Vembanad Lake, situated in Kerala
(Lat 9 28 & 10 10 N and long 76
13 & 31 E) is the largest brackish
water body on the southwest coast of
the Indian peninsula. The lake is ap-
proximately 60km in length and covers
an area of around 21,050ha1. It acts
as a giant reservoir, protecting against
floods and is in itself a major ecological
resource. The lake has a unique feature
of possessing two different ecosystems,
retaining an estuarine condition in the
downstream region (the Cochin back-
waters) and a freshwater habitat in the
upstream regions (Thanneermukkom
to Alleppey). In the 1950s and early
1960s giant freshwater prawn were
a lucrative component of the fishery
in Vembanad Lake and its confluent
rivers. As an important component of
shrimp exports and earner of foreign
exchange for Kerala, it emerged as themost valuable species in the inland
waters of the state. However, since the
1980s stocks of the giant freshwater
prawn have declined substantially due
to various interventions including over
fishing7. From literature it is known
that Vembanad Lake is endowed with
commercial-scale capture fisheries for
bothPalaemonidandPenaeidshrimp.
TheMacrobrachiumfishery itself is
one of the majorfishery activities with
several species present, accounting for
about 1.63% of the exploited fishery re-
sources of the lake. The annual yield of
different freshwater prawns include:M.
rosenbergii 39.27 tons,M. idella 68.3
350,000 freedownloads
2,400 registered
members
Why dont you join us?
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16 Aquaculture Asia Magazine
Research & farming techniques
Macrobrachium rosenbergii broodstock of more than 100g, collected from Vembanad lake.
tons,M. scabriculum 6.78 tons andM.
equidens 3.34 tons8.
Berried females start appearing in
the catches in July-August and in-
crease until October-November. The
slow moving ovigerous females that
become abundant in the lake after
august are compelled to undertake
a lengthy breeding migration. It has
been reported that over 23 tons of
berried females are exploited annu-
ally from the lake, the highest beingin October. Males are predominantly
found between January to June and the
females are predominant during the
period August to December. Females of
around 100-150g dominate the catch,
representing approximately 44%7. Only
about 30% of the total spawner stock is
thought to successfully reach the breed-
ing grounds.
It is noteworthy that the brooders
of Vembanad Lake are characterized
by a greater size and higher fecunditythan wild brooders from other areas.
Females between 157-258mm and
weight of 34.2g-202g have an abso-
lute fecundity ranging from 30,000 to
227,000 eggs9. Unfortunately, removal
of wild brooders for hatchery opera-
tions reduces the supply of wild seed to
support the natural population.
Recently it has been realized that
wild brooders give much better quality
seed. The practice of carelessly select-
ing broodstock from hatchery popula-
tions, often from the same batch, has
created vicious cycle of inbreeding,
leading to poor quality seed. Vembanad
Lake has the potential to provide high-
quality broodstock for the industry,
until such time as appropriate brood-
stock management strategies are in
place to maintain the genetic integrity
of hatchery-reared populations. Restric-
tions on the fishing ofM. rosenbergii,
at least during breeding season, would
enhance and conserve the wild stock.
It would also be useful to encourage
the construction of hatcheries adjacent
to the breeding grounds, where berried
females are found, and the establish-ment of sanctuaries and hatcheries
would be a useful step towards the
establishment of a broodstock enhance-
ment program10. Broodstock purchased
from the fisherman for seed production
should be returned to the waters so as
to minimize the impact on the wild
stock. Harikrishnan and Kurup1 have
emphasized that the temporal and spa-
tial availability of berried prawns in the
lake for establishing berry procurement
centers. In this connection, it wouldbe useful for the state government and
freshwater prawn fishery authority to
take necessary steps to regulate and
monitor stock levels and the fishery ac-
tivity in the lake, particularly during the
breeding season, in order to avoid over
exploitation of this valuable resource.
References
1. Harikrishnan, M and M.B. Kurup, 1996. Temporal
and spatial availability of ovigerous females ofMac-
robrachium rosenbergii (de Man) in Vembanad lake.
Proceedings of the Eighth Kerala Science Congress.
pp 441-443.
2. Balamurugan, P., Mariappan, P. and C. Balasunda-
ram.2004. Impacts of mono-sexMacrobrachium
culture on the future of seed availability in India.
Aquaculture Asia., April-June, Vol. IX(2): 15-16.
3. Hien, T.T.T., Minh, T.H., Phuong, N.T., Wilder, M.N.,
1998. Current status of freshwater prawn culture
in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam. JIRCAS
Journal, 6, 89-100.
4. Mather, P.B., de Bruyn, M., 2003. Genetic diversity in
wild stocks of the giant freshwater prawnMacrobra-
chium rosenbergii: Implications for aquaculture and
conservation., 26 (4), 4 -7.
5. New, M. B., 2000. History and global status of fresh-
water prawn farming. In M.B.New and W.C.Valenti
(Eds). Freshwater prawn culture: the farming of
Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Blackwell Science,
Oxford. pp. 1-11.
6. Wilder, M.N., Wei- Jun, Y., Do Thi Thanh, H.,
Masachika, M., 1999. Reproductive mechanisms
in the giant freshwater prawn,Macrobrachium
rosenbergii and co-operative research to improve
seed production technology in the Mekong Delta
Region of Vietnam. UJNR Technical reports, No.28,
pp. 149-156.7. Kurup, B.M. and M. Harikrishnan. 2000. Reviving
the Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man) fishery in
Vembanad lake, India. Naga, The ICLARM Quar-
terly (Vol. 23, No 2). April-June.
8. Kurup, B.M., Sebastian, M.J., Sankaran, T.M. and
P. Rabindranath. 1992. Fishery and Biology of
Macrobrachium spp of the Vembanad Lake. In: E.
G. Silas (Ed) freshwater prawns. Kerala Agricultural
University. Pp 78-89.
9. Sureshkumar, S. and B.M. Kurup. 1998. Fecundity
indices of giant freshwater prawn,Macrobrachium
rosenbergii (de Man). J. Aqua. Trop. 13(3): 181-188.
10. John, M. C. 1957. Bionomics and life history of
Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man). Bull. Cent.
Res. Inst. Univ. Travencore, Tiruvandrum Ser.
C5(1): 93-102.
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Seed production of mud crab Scylla serrata at the Rajiv
Gandhi Center for Aquaculture, Tamil Nadu, India
Mohamed Shaji1, Emilia T. Quinitio2, Thampi Samraj3, S. Kandan3, K. Ganesh3, Dinesh Kumar4, S. Arulraj5,
S. Pandiarajan3
, Shajina Ismail6
, K. Dhandapani3
1. Marine Product Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Sub Regional Centre, Noble Arcade, Cannavore-2, Kerala,
India; 2. Aquaculture Department, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center,Tigbauan 5021, Iloilo, Philippines; 3.
Rajiv Gandhi Center for Aquaculture, Thirumullaivasal 609-113, Sirkali Taluk, Nagapattinam District, Tamil Nadu, India; 4.
Andra Pradesh Seed Production Supply and Research, Mangamaripeta, Bheemunipattanam 531-163, Visakhapatnam, Andra
Pradesh, India; 5. MPEDA Regional Centre (Aquaculture), 32 Nirmala Nagar, Thanjavur 613007, Tamil Nadu, India; 6.
MPEDA, Regional Centre (Aquaculture), T.D. Rd, Kochi-682011, Kerala, India.
Mud crabs or mangrove crabs belong
to the Family Portunidae under the
genus Scylla with four known species,
S. serrata, S. tranquebarica, S. olivacea
and S. paramamosain. In India, the
common species are S. serrata and S.
olivacea, based on the taxonomic iden-
tification of Keenan et al (1998).
Mud crabs have gained a niche in
the international market. In the late
1990s, 4-5 tons of marketable size
crabs were airlifted from India daily
(Marichamy and Rajapackiam, 2001).
At present, one of the several exporters
in Chennai has been air lifting 750-
1000 kg of live marketable size crabsdaily. Crabs are exported to Singapore,
Malaysia and sometimes Taiwan. Mud
crabs are sourced mainly from the shal-
low coastal waters, estuaries, intertidal
swamps, and mangrove areas. The
demand for crabs has resulted in over-
fishing in many parts of southern India.
Assessment of catches has revealed that
only a low percentage is of larger sized
crabs and that there has been a decrease
in production rate. This situation has
created interest among aquacultureventures to produce seed of mud crab
to reduce the fishing pressure on wild
stocks. In previous years, several trials
on seed production had been conducted
mostly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu but
crablet production was not sufficient to
make farming viable.
The Rajiv Gandhi Center for Aqua-
culture (RGCA), a society functioning
under the Marine Products Export De-
velopment Authority (MPEDA), based
in Tamil Nadu has always been in full
support to the development of culture
technologies of important aquaculture
species to support resource manage-
ment and sustainable aquaculture. In
the last quarter of 2004, RGCA started
to conduct trials on the mass seed pro-
duction of the mud crab Scylla serrata
in an attempt to establish a pilot scale
hatchery. The establishment of hatcher-
ies and nursery production of juvenile
mud crab as source for farming up to
marketable size will open the door to
sustainable development of crab aqua-
culture.
Sourcing of crabbroodstock
Adult crabs (500-1000 g body
weight; 14.4-18.0 cm carapace width)were obtained from Cochin, Chen-
nai, Thirumullaivasal, Karaikal and
Chidambaram. The crabs varied in the
state of ovarian maturity, which was
examined by gently pushing down the
first abdominal segment adjacent to the
carapace where the color of the ovary
can be seen. Mature ovary is a dark
orange colour while immature ovary
is yellow. Crabs with immature ovary
were ablated on one eyestalk to induce
maturation.
Spawning/hatching
The facilities from a former shrimp
hatchery were modified for use in the
maintenance of mud crab broodstock
and culture of larvae.
Crabs were disinfected in a forma-
lin bath of 150 ppm in tanks or basins
for 30 min and stocked in two units
of 2 m x 5 m concrete tanks located
in an enclosed room. The crabs were
provided with 4-5 cm sand substrate
and bricks as a refuge. Water depth was
maintained at 40-50 cm with a water
exchange rate of 30-80% daily. The
water temperature and salinity in the
maturation tanks ranged from 26-29.8
C, 23-34 ppt, respectively. Dissolved
oxygen fluctuated from 3.0 to 5.8 ppm
while pH was 7.2-8.0. Sampling for
egg carrying (berried) crabs in the
tanks was done twice daily, in the early
morning and late afternoon with an
aid of a flashlight. Berried crabs could
easily be recognized during sampling
as their abdominal flap extended out-
wards. Berried crabs were transferred
individually to 300-literfiberglass
incubation tank with treated aerated
seawater.
Of the 32 crabs that spawned fivehatched their eggs, in which most had
partial hatching. The egg mass of the
remaining 27 crabs had unfertilized
eggs with no further egg embryonic
development. Fouling by filamentous
bacteria and sessile protozoans were
observed in eggs usually at around one
week after spawning and fungal infec-
tion was often observed in unfertilized
eggs. Fertilized eggs are less suscep-
tible to infection than the unfertilized
eggs probably due the hardened ferti-lized membrane restricting fungal pen-
etration. Bath treatment with formalin
and fungicide were applied to minimize
infestation of fouling microorganisms
and fungal infections.
Limb movement and beating of the
heart at more than 160 beats/min were
found to be indicative of imminent
hatching. Incubation time was typically
10-11 days at a temperature of 25.4-
31C. Hatching usually occurred in
the morning. The female was removed
from the incubation tank after hatching
and zoeae were collected thereafter.
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Common mud crab species in India: Scylla serrata